cambodian prime minister thein sein said they should use this week's meetings with china, the united states and japan and other countries to make progress on regional security. >> reporter: several southeast asian nations, including vietnam and the philippines are at odds with china over sovereignty of islands in the south china sea. the area is a potential source of oil and gas reserves. at monday's meeting, asean ministers agreed on the basic elements of the code of conduct. a draft of the code of conduct obtained by nhk says nations should respect international law. it adds that the coc should be a way of preventing conflicts and it also calls for a mech noimp review whether participating countries are following the coc. the foreign minister's discussions lasted for longer than scheduled, and in the end, they agreed on key elements of the coc, but failed to announce in joint communique on monday. that suggests differences of opinions exist between asean members. asean nations will bring the issue to the meetings with china over the coming days but it's unclear whether china will a